Ben Ball Unranked & Injury Update

by bruinponcho on Oct 29, 2009 9:00 AM PDT Comment 15 comments

The ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll came out this morning with Kansas at number 1. After the loss of DC, PAA, JS, and JH, CBH's team is unranked. Based on the number of votes, we came in at number 29. I'm not sure what the official number is, but off hand I feel like this is the first time in about 4 years that CBH's team isn't ranked.

As I've stated before, as much potential that this team has, they are devoid of players who have proven anything yet. I am fully confident that by the end of the season, we will definitely be ranked. I think it is really a credit to CBH that this team has gotten as many votes as it has based merely on other coaches' faith in his coaching and recruiting skills.

Injury updates after the jump...

Good news from the LA Times blog. JK is practicing with full contact. ML is back from his concussion JMM is back practicing in non-contact drills. Unfortunately, MR, JA, and BL are all still out. I really hope that JA can get healthy soon both for his own development and so the team can have a realistic practice with the only true point guard on the roster.

First exhibition game November 4th!!!!

Go Bruins!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Your two headline topics are actually only one...

… we are decimated by injury. Howland’s proven that the loss of NBA calibre players is not insurmountable. However, we’re getting killed with injuries right now, and it’s going to take proof that these guys can come back and become a great team together before we see ourselves back in the ranking.

I came here to complain that we’re not ranked, but I’m not sure how any rational pollster could rank us right now.

Go Bruins!

by Harsha on Oct 29, 2009 9:29 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Ranking rational...or a joke?

For one thing JustSC is ranked 36th. Are they serious? Do they even have 5 players left to field a team?

by stevenucla on Oct 29, 2009 9:56 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah I saw that. Makes absolutely no sense.

by bruinponcho on Oct 29, 2009 10:17 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It makes sense if you believe OJ is innocent.

Victory or until next year!

by ncrpz2 on Oct 29, 2009 11:10 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think I figured this one out

USC received 22 votes. That means either 22 people voted them 25th best in the country – which would have required some kind of mass hypnosis, or one person voted them number 4. Look who is ranked number 4 – UNC. I suspect USC received 22 votes based on a one-letter typo!

by TigerBruin on Oct 29, 2009 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha

Nice work. It’s certainly in the realm of possibility, and actually more believable than anyone believing SUC should be in the top 25.

by Tydides on Oct 29, 2009 2:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

or could it be

South Carolina?

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Oct 30, 2009 2:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why did USC get votes?

We’re not the only ones puzzled about this. Though TigerBruin has a reasonable guess.

Go Bruins!

by Harsha on Oct 29, 2009 3:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why should we be ranked?

We haven’t won any games yet.

The only thing sillier than pre-season basketball rankings is …, well, I can’t think of anything right now. I don’t care what anyone other than Coach Howland thinks about our team at this point. And just$c rated above us? Good for them. Let’s see what the standings look like in about three months or so.

by Fox 71 on Oct 29, 2009 9:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

the thing sillier is...

umm…pre-season football rankings? One of the beauties of basketball is that your fate is in your hands: the rankings don’t put you in Final Fours.

by kidro2001 on Oct 29, 2009 10:10 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I expound on this like Fox does on TV commentators

Preseason rankings are worthless.

I know this sounds like I’m bashing the post, and trust me, I’m not because I do appreciate the injury news update, but we see this every year, and even more so than in football, I can’t think of any poll that is more inaccurate than the preseason basketball poll. I don’t believe we should be ranked and we’re not, so at least that’s right, but come on. With the number of teams out there, and many teams not even playing meaningful games until conference play begins in like two months, what is the point of having this out there when the only thing it’s good for is remembering how wrong they got it at the beginning of the season?

Full Disclosure: Yes, the poll was worthless 2, 3, 4 years ago when we were ranked high in the preseason as well. I’ve been on record as saying this for years now.

P.S. Fox, SUC is rated below us in the poll…not that it matters, because again, the poll is worthless.

by Tydides on Oct 29, 2009 10:03 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Basketball rankings are much better than football rankings

I totally agree with you Ty. Thankfully, unlike in football, basketball rankings are more for fun as the tournament is the real decider of rankings. The other benefit of the tournament is that it allows for rankings to fluctuate a lot more to reflect reality as it develops throughout the season rather than defend regional biases like the BCS dos.

by bruinponcho on Oct 29, 2009 10:21 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think over the course of the season, the basketball rankings are better

Not because of any kind of magic but simply because basketball teams play more games more frequently so you get more data. Besides that, people don’t take the same stock in them anyway because, as you said, the tournament decides everything at the end anyway.

by Tydides on Oct 29, 2009 10:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like our preseason ranking.

It gives us something to shoot for and underscores our need to go out and prove ‘them’ wrong. I have no doubt CBH will have us poised by season’s end to go into the tournament and do some damage.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Oct 29, 2009 10:29 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs